Abstract
While word classes are language-specific categories, lexical flexibility remains under discussion. This article investigates this phenomenon in a balanced sample of 36 Oceanic languages, a genetic group that has figured prominently in this debate. Based on a systematic survey of the morphosyntactic behavior of a range of semantic word types in three propositional functions, it is shown how lexical flexibility can be measured and compared across languages and constructions. While Oceanic flexibility is pervasive in some respects, lexical categorization in these languages does not qualitatively deviate from relevant typological tendencies.
Acknowledgements
The research reported in this article was carried out with a personal grant from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO). I wish to thank four anonymous reviewers and Frans Plank for their helpful comments on earlier versions of this article. Thanks are also due to Alena Witzlack-Makarevich and Sebastian Bank for their advice on the statistical analyses used for this article. Any remaining errors are the responsibility of the author.
Abbreviations
- 1/2/3
1st/2nd/3rd person
- art
article
- attr
attributive
- const
construct suffix
- excl
exclusive
- fut
future
- gen
genitive
- incl
inclusive
- indf
indefinite
- irr
irrealis
- loc
locative
- neg
negation
- nmlz
nominalizer
- nom
nominative
- obl
oblique
- pl
plural
- poss
possessive
- prox
proximal
- prs
present
- pst
past
- real
realis
- rel
relative
- sbj
subject
- seq
sequential
- sg
singular.
Appendix: Composition of language sample
In the triplets, the first figure indicates the Diversity Value, the second the total number of languages in a subphylum, and the third the number of branches in a subphylum.
| First-level subphylum | Number of languages in sample | Languages | |||
| Second-level subphylum | |||||
| Third-level subphylum | |||||
| Fourth-level subphylum | |||||
| Admiralty Islands (3, 31, 2) | 3→2 | ||||
| Eastern (3.5, 28, 3) | 2→1 | ||||
| Manus | 1 | Loniu | |||
| Paktong | 1→0 | missing | |||
| Southeast Islands | |||||
| Western (1, 3, 1) | 1 | Wuvulu | |||
| Central-Eastern Oceanic (21.28, 228, 3) | 15→14 | ||||
| Remote (18.67, 193, 5) | 11→10 | ||||
| Central Pacific (4.75, 44, 2) | 2 | ||||
| East Fijian-Polynesian | 1 | Marquesan | |||
| West-Fijian-Rotuman | 1 | Rotuman | |||
| Loyalty Islands (1, 3, 1) | 1 | Drehu | |||
| Micronesian (3.89, 20, 2) | 2→1 | ||||
| Nauruan (isolate) | 1→0 | missing | |||
| Micronesian proper | 1 | Ponapeian | |||
| New Caledonian (5.33, 29, 3) | 2 | Nêlêmwa, Tinrin | |||
| North & Central Vanuatu (7.83, 97, 3) | 4 | ||||
| East Santo (2, 5, 2) | 1 | Sakao | |||
| Malekula Interior (3, 12, 3) | 1 | Neverver | |||
| Northeast Vanuatu-Banks Islands (5.5, 80, 5) | 2 | Tamambo,Northeast Ambae | |||
| South Vanuatu (3, 9, 3) | 2 | Erromangan,Whitesands | |||
| Southeast Solomonic (3.62, 26, 2) | 2 | ||||
| Gela-Guadalcanal | 1 | Lengo | |||
| Malaita-San-Cristobal | 1 | Longgu | |||
| St. Matthias (1, 2, 1) | 1 | Mussau | |||
| Temotu (2, 10, 2) | 1 | Engdewu | |||
| Western Oceanic (27.96, 241, 3) | 19→17 | ||||
| Meso-Melanesian (9.13, 71, 3) | 6→5 | ||||
| Bali-Vitu (1, 2, 1) | 1 | Vitu | |||
| New Ireland (9.69, 65, 5) | 4→3 | Nalik, Kokota, Barok, missing | |||
| Willaumez (1, 4, 1) | 1 | Nakanai | |||
| North New Guinea (15.28, 106, 4) | 9→8 | ||||
| Huon Gulf (7.1, 31, 4) | 3 | Bukawa, Labu, Hote | |||
| Ngero-Vitiaz (9.08, 44, 2) | 4 | ||||
| Ngero (2, 6, 2) | 1 | Kove | |||
| Vitiaz (11.06, 38, 9) | 3 | Mangap-Mbula, Lote, Mato | |||
| Sarmi-Jayapura Bay (2, 13, 2) | 1→0 | missing | |||
| Schouten (2.5, 16, 2) | 1 | Manam | |||
| Papuan Tip (5.25, 64, 2) | 4 | ||||
| Nuclear (5.33, 44, 3) | 2 | Tawala, Saliba | |||
| Peripheral (3.99, 20, 2) | 2 | ||||
| Central Papuan | 1 | Mekeo | |||
| Kilivila-Louisiades | 1 | Kilivila | |||
| Yapese (isolate) | 1 | Yapese | |||
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©2016 by De Gruyter Mouton
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Lexical flexibility in Oceanic languages
- Sampling for variety
- Discussion
- Of categories: Language-particular – comparative – universal
- The challenge of making language description and comparison mutually beneficial
- Crosslinguistic categories, comparative concepts, and the Walman diminutive
- Crosslinguistic categories in morphosyntactic typology: Problems and prospects
- On categorization: Stick to the facts of the languages
- Comparative concepts and language-specific categories: Theory and practice
- Some language-particular terms are comparative concepts
- On the right of being a comparative concept
- On linguistic categories
- Thoughts on language-specific and crosslinguistic entities
- Describing languoids: When incommensurability meets the language-dialect continuum
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Lexical flexibility in Oceanic languages
- Sampling for variety
- Discussion
- Of categories: Language-particular – comparative – universal
- The challenge of making language description and comparison mutually beneficial
- Crosslinguistic categories, comparative concepts, and the Walman diminutive
- Crosslinguistic categories in morphosyntactic typology: Problems and prospects
- On categorization: Stick to the facts of the languages
- Comparative concepts and language-specific categories: Theory and practice
- Some language-particular terms are comparative concepts
- On the right of being a comparative concept
- On linguistic categories
- Thoughts on language-specific and crosslinguistic entities
- Describing languoids: When incommensurability meets the language-dialect continuum